Piyush Gupta appointed chairman of Keppel as it announces dividend windfall (The Edge)

Along with its results announced on Feb 4, Keppel announced that Piyush Gupta, former group CEO of DBS Group Holdings has been appointed chairman of Keppel as of April 17. He is taking over from Danny Teoh, who is retiring after 15 years at Keppel' s board.

The company also announced a special dividend of 2 cents per share (as defined below) in cash and 1 unit in Keppel REIT for every 9 Shares in the company. The rationale for the proposed special dividend is to reward Keppel shareholders with value unlocked from completed asset monetisation.

Altogether, the proposed total dividend for FY2025 is approximately 47 cents per Keppel share, up 38% from FY2024, comprising ordinary cash dividends of 34 cents per share, of which the proposed final cash dividend is 19 cents interim dividend was 15 cents. The special dividend is around 13 cents, comprising cash of 2 cents and dividend-in-specie of 1 Keppel REIT unit for every 9 Keppel shares held, which is equivalent to approximately 11 cents per share based on Keppel REIT&rsquo s closing market price of $0.98 on Feb 2026.

Keppel announced it will continue to pay ordinary dividends based on the New Keppel&rsquo s performance. In addition, it aims to pay out special dividends based on 10-15% of the gross value of asset monetisation transactions completed in the financial year, until the company&rsquo s monetisation programme is completed. The actual percentage will depend on the Company&rsquo s growth plans as well as cash generated. For FY2025, the gross value of the asset monetisation completed was approximately $1.6 billion.

In FY2025, Keppel&rsquo s accounting net profit after minority interests fell by 23.9% y-o-y to $741.45 million. The New Keppel (excluding non-core portfolio for divestment and discontinued operations) delivered net profit of $789 million in FY2025, down 16% y-o-y mainly due to accounting loss of $222 million related to the proposed sale of M1&rsquo s telco business.

However, Keppel&rsquo s net profit excluding non-core portfolio for divestment and discontinued operations rose by 39% y-o-y to $1.1 billion, underpinned by higher $1,100 million contributions from all three business segments, infrastructure, real estate and connectivity. Recurring income grew to $941 million in FY2025, up 21% y-o-y. and free cash flow for the year $611 million.